The Australian Institute of International Affairs (Queensland) joined with the US Studies Centre to host a seminar by Tom Switzer on US Elections and Implications for Foreign Policy, moderated by Mr Niels Marquardt, the US Consul-General.
President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney articulate different versions of American global leadership. But whoever wins this year’s presidential election will increasingly place more stress on modesty and limits in a complex and plural world. The US, far from remaining the world’s policeman, is bound to define distinctions between the essential and the desirable, between what is possible and what it beyond its capacities. To fall back on feel-good slogans about a “new American Century” may lead to a painful comeuppance.
